Digital Directions: 5 Affordable Digital Media Projects for 2013

4. Make Your Own "App"

Everybody loves apps, but who has the budget for it? Agita abounds: iOS software development continues to be a sellers market, no one wants the headache of getting the app cleared on the App Store, and even if you did, what about Android and other platforms?

Luckily there is one easy way around many of these headaches: create an app in the form of an adaptive website. An adaptive website is one that can detect the display device and modify its presentation to be optimized for that device. In other words, it will look good (and different) on each device: phone, tablet, what have you.

If you have web development skills in your organization, you can explore this. No "C#" programmers. No App Store headaches. Just do it.

It won't get you everything a native iOS (or Android) app will get you. It won't allow you to use GPS, accelerometer, camera or other device resources. And for the most part, it requires a persistent Internet connection. But for most publishers, who are primarily focusing on content delivery, it will do just fine.

You can even integrate your ebook content into adaptive web mobile apps, and leverage the power of your existing content resources. Your existing ebook content can be dynamically delivered from a server and flexibly integrated into browser-based applications.

5. Create Your Digital Media Roadmap

Digital media evolution has many facets. A "roadmap" is a useful tool for planning and managing them. It allows the organization to converge around a common set of goals and the means to get there. Here are some tips on creating an effective roadmap:

Chart out your roadmap to either two or three years. One is too short. Four is too long.

Define realistic goals for every three months.

Include goals that cover the three Ps: Product (what you deliver to the marketplace), Platform (systems, tools, and services necessary to delivery the product) and People (roles, skills and business processes necessary to accomplish all of the above).

Don't have too many goals to be delivered in any one 90-day period.

Don't be too wordy. If it is more than about three pages, no one will read it.

Include funding dependencies. Plan out when your budget requests need to be submitted.

Revise your plan every 90 days. Hey, things change sometimes!

These Top Five digital media project suggestions have all been proven to be both effective and pragmatic and won't break the bank. Best of luck in 2013! BB